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GILERA PIUMA From Italy, a modern Manx

THE FOUR-STROKE SINGLE MAY indeed be the most archaic of all motorcycle engines, but you can’t argue with success. The Single has the look and the sound, and perhaps as a result of its simplicity, it seems to be making a huge comeback in popularity, both in Japan and in Europe.

Though Yamaha deserves part of the credit for reinventing the Single with its SR500 and SRX, in Europe it's Gilera that has revitalized the class by dreaming up the beautiful 500cc Saturno. Given the class’ growing popularity, it was inevitable that before long, we’d see the first Bimota-style alloy-framed Single. And it was equally inevitable that Gilera would produce it, especially since the company’s chief engineer is now Federico Martini, w'ho formerly had the same job with Bimota. Given the chance at Gilera. he produced the Piuma. a superbly fashioned. aluminum-framed machine available, at least for now, only in racing form.

The Piuma’s appeal, beyond that of its obvious aesthetic attraction, lies in the disparate marriage of a state-of-the-art chassis and a lusty, four-stroke, one-cylinder engine. Effectively, the engine is a productionized version of the tuned Saturno motor pumped up to 558cc and fitted with oversize valves, a DelFOrto carb bored to 41.5mm, competition camshafts and a closeratio five-speed gearbox. All this results in a claimed 58 horsepower at the back wheel, at 8500 rpm. and a claimed top speed of 137 mph. The engine is tractable for a racing unit and has usable power available from 5000 rpm up to its 8000-rpm redline.

Drop to 4500 rpm, however, and you're into dreaded “megaphonitis." just like the Norton Manxes of the 1950s. Even above that rough-running portion of the powerband. the Piuma won't be mistaken for an inline-Four—this is no rocketship. What you lose on acceleration, though, you can make up in the turns and especially under braking, w'here the Marzocchi inverted fork and twin 10.2-inch Brembo discs, grabbed by a pair of four-piston calipers, ensure that the only problem you have is making sure not to run up the back of people w'hose bikes are less well endowed. There seems no limit to what you can do w'ith the 260-pound Piuma and get aw'ay with. In spite of its short, 52.8inch wheelbase and 23.5-degree rake, it’s a bike vou can ride almost on autopilot.

How much fun would this bike be in a highway-legal version? Grit your teeth: The prototype for such a bike exists, weighing 320 pounds with full street equipment. Developed alongside the competition version, it languishes in Gilera’s Experimental Department, the victim of a lack of conviction that a market exists fora single-cylindered baby Bimota.

But even if his street Piuma has yet to be given the green light. Martini is understandably proud of the race version. All it takes to get one is the ability to come up w'ith the bike’s asking price of 18 million lira, or about $16.350 at current exchange rates. —Alan Cathcart